Raphael J. Musto, whose political career of nearly four decades was tainted at its close by allegations that he took bribes and kickbacks, died Thursday at age 85 after battling liver disease and cancer.
Three weeks ago, the Pittston Twp. Democrat was allowed to come home from a federal medical prison in North Carolina, where he had been sent in February by a federal judge who ruled he was not competent to stand trial on corruption charges.
He died at his home Thursday morning surrounded by family, according to his niece, former Luzerne County district attorney Jacqueline Musto Carroll.
Mr. Musto started in politics in 1971, taking over his father’s state House seat and keeping it for four more terms. He spent a year in the U.S. House of Representatives and 28 years in the state Senate until opting to retire in 2010.
Described by those who knew him as a gregarious, outgoing politician who cared about his constituents, Mr. Musto’s pet causes while in office included the environment, veterans’ affairs and senior citizens.
“He definitely was a people person. He loved to be around people. He loved to sit and have conversations. He was a good guy. We’re really going to miss him,” Ms. Musto Carroll said. “It’s hard to believe he was 85 years old, because until he got sick, he acted very young. He had a great spirit. He was always out and about, doing things for people.”
Mr. Musto was born March 30, 1929 in Pittston Township, one of eight children of Democratic state Rep. James Musto and Rose Frushon Musto. He would help run his family’s grocery store when his father was in Harrisburg and also volunteered with the township’s fire department.
He graduated from Pittston Township High School in 1946. He served in the U.S. Army from 1951-1953, during the Korean War as a military police officer stationed in Germany.
Mr. Musto was proud of his service and throughout his legislative career, proud of others who served, according to retired U.S. Air Force Sgt. Neno Sartini of the Italian American Veterans of Luzerne County, Post 1 — of which Mr. Musto was a life member.
“He was a very, very good friend of ours,” Sgt. Sartini said. “He was always there for us. Always.”
Sgt. Sartini stressed Mr. Musto’s willingness to help veterans, always finding time for them, no matter how busy he was. He would listen, and he would get things done, Sgt. Sartini said.
Political career
Mr. Musto graduated from King’s College in 1971 with a bachelor’s degree. That year, he was elected to the state House of Representatives in a special election to fill his late father’s unexpired term, running as a Republican because Luzerne County Democratic leaders wouldn’t support him for the office, according to the United Press International.
Mr. Musto would go on to be re-elected to four more consecutive terms in the state House as a Democrat.
On April 9, 1980, Mr. Musto won a special election in the 11th U.S. Congressional District to succeed longtime Congressman Daniel J. Flood, who resigned after pleading guilty to federal election law violations. He was sworn in on April 15, 1980, saying after the hastily called ceremony, “First thing I want to do is set up my district offices and get started serving my constituents,” according to an Associated Press article.
While in office, Mr. Musto refused a bribe in the infamous FBI Abscam sting operation, in which agents posing as Middle Eastern businessmen offered cash in exchange for political favors. Mr. Musto declined the money, but his fellow Pennsylvania Congressman, Michael J. Myers, didn’t, and he was convicted of accepting $50,000.
Mr. Musto didn’t keep the U.S. House seat long. Republican James Nelligan beat him in the 1980 Reagan landslide that saw Republicans gain control of the U.S. Senate and make substantial gains the U.S. House.
Mr. Musto would soon return to politics. In November 1982, he was elected to the state Senate in the 14th District.
Former state Rep. Thomas Tigue, a fellow Democrat and close friend of Mr. Musto’s, recalled him as a very outgoing person and a problem-solver.
“From my own personal perspective, I always thought of Ray Musto as a person of the people. Whatever a person’s problem was, real or imagined, he would try to help them,” Mr. Tigue said. “He was one of those people, who, if they saw a problem, he would do everything in his power to solve it.”
Mr. Musto would be re-elected to the state Senate in 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006, and his colleagues voted him Senate Democratic Caucus Secretary, a position he held from 1997 to 2004.
He was considered the Senate’s expert on environmental issues and at one point chaired the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee.
Mr. Musto authored some of Pennsylvania’s landmark environmental legislation, including a statewide hazardous materials safety program and a statewide environmental education program for school students. He was a sponsor of legislation that created the state’s curbside recycling program. He earned several accolades for his environmental work, including the annual Thomas P. Shelburne Environmental Leadership Award.
Among his achievements in veterans’ affairs, Mr. Musto helped establish a program to allow honorably discharged World War II veterans, many of whom did not get to graduate because of their military service, to receive high school diplomas.
State Rep. Mike Carroll, D-118, Avoca, said he got to know Mr. Musto in a professional capacity after he was elected to Mr. Musto’s former House seat in 2006 and respected Mr. Musto’s efforts to improve the lives of his constituents.
Ms. Musto Carroll recalls her uncle hosting an event each year for grandparents and helping coal miners’ widows receive Black Lung benefits.
“Whatever they went there for, people always left there satisfied, because he always did a good job,” she said.
Ms. Musto Carroll said Mr. Musto’s annual September breakfast was attended by thousands.
“To me, that was the start of the fall season, to go to my uncle’s breakfast,” she said.
She remembered her uncle loved to cook — something he learned in the military — and would work the stands at Pittston Township Fire Department fundraisers.
But for Mr. Musto, the most important thing was family, Ms. Musto Carroll said.
Mr. Musto and his wife, the former Frances Panzetta, were married for almost 60 years. They are the parents of four children: James, Raphael Jr., Michael and Frances Ann, as well as several grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
In addition to being a great father and husband, Mr. Musto “had seven brothers and sisters who adored him, and nieces and nephews who just loved him,” Ms. Musto Carroll said.
Mr. Musto’s brother, Gerard, who died in 2011, was the longtime superintendent of the Pittston Area School District, and another brother, Joseph J. Musto, served twice as an interim Luzerne County judge and was nominated to serve as county court administrator.
The end
Mr. Musto announced his retirement from politics in January 2010, but his career was capped by allegations of corruption.
On April 8, 2010, federal agents raided Mr. Musto’s house, removing three bagfuls of evidence.
Mr. Musto was indicted in November 2010 on three counts of fraud, two counts of bribery and two counts of making false statements to investigators.
In November 2013, he was hit with additional charges that he solicited and accepted kickbacks from a government vendor beginning in 1990 in exchange for political favors.
“I hope that does not tarnish his legacy of service,” Ms. Musto Carroll said.
Mr. Musto’s attorneys fought to avoid trial, citing his poor health and winning numerous trial delays. In January, U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo declared Mr. Musto incompetent to stand trial and he was sent to the Federal Medical Center at Butner in North Carolina for court-ordered evaluation and treatment in February.
But on April 4, Judge Caputo allowed Mr. Musto, whose health was failing, to come home.
Mr. Musto died three weeks later, surrounded by family.
Funeral arrangements were not announced as of Thursday night.
Jory Heckman, staff writer, contributed to this report.
Contact the writer: eskrapits@citizensvoice.com

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